People settling oil spill claims against BP who are not also involved in lawsuits will not have to set aside 6 percent of the settlement to pay lawyers, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

View full sizeJulia Rendleman, The Houma Courier, via The Associated PressFishers and members of the community were photographed during a Gulf of Mexico oil spill claims meeting March 28 in Mathews.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier's order narrows a previous decision about setting aside money to potentially compensate the committee of plaintiff attorneys pressing the case over the 2010 oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. His decision creates an exemption for people getting money through the Gulf Coast Claims Facility who are not also involved in the massive litigation in New Orleans. The ruling also expands the scope of environmental recoveries exempted from setting aside a percentage of settlements for lawyers.

Barbier, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, has been under fire for a Dec. 28 order that required a percentage of settlements to be held in escrow for possible payment to the committee of plaintiff attorneys leading the oil spill litigation, because it created confusion and raised questions about whether it was proper for everyone to be forced to contribute.

Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell had been concerned that the state's environmental recoveries could be in jeopardy, while BP, the U.S. Department of Justice, the states of Florida and Alabama, and attorneys outside the litigation said it was improper for people who were settling grievances outside of court to have to pay.

Barbier's order -- his third on the subject -- addresses those concerns and deems certain types of settlements off-limits.

As spelled out in his Jan. 4 order, anybody who settled claims before Dec. 30 with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which is paying people from BP's $20 billion fund, does not have to contribute to the escrow account. But the new order says that people who reach settlements through the claims facility after Dec. 30 who do not also have claims pending in the litigation also don't have to pay.

It is not known how large that group is.

About 110,000 people or businesses have filed "short forms" to keep their options open in the litigation. Many of them are presumably negotiating with Kenneth Feinberg, the administrator of the claims facility, and would have to contribute 6 percent of their settlements because they had a link in both worlds and could benefit from the lawyers' work in the court process.

Meanwhile, after a joint request made Tuesday by the state of Louisiana and the Plaintiffs Steering Committee, Barbier codified and expanded the scope of environmental recoveries that are exempted from having to contribute 4 percent of future settlements.

An earlier order from Barbier said compensation for ongoing, increased costs from state agencies responding to the oil spill and compensation for the cost of tallying damage to wildlife and the environment, known as the natural resource damage assessment process, were exempted from having to pay.

The new order on Wednesday not only exempts assessment costs from the states of Alabama and Louisiana, but any actual settlement for natural resource damages themselves. That means the actual costs of restoring marshes and wildlife habitats and bringing back wildlife populations are now exempted.

The court will determine later whether the money held in escrow should actually be awarded to plaintiff attorneys in the litigation for compensation.

This morning, the court will hold its final "status conference" with all parties in the litigation before the case goes to trial Feb. 27.

The trial over liability for the April 2010 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 men and unleashed an 86-day oil gusher beneath the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, will unfold in three phases and is expected to take most of this year.

While many felt that setting aside money for possible attorney fees before the case even went to trial was inappropriate, having the fee issues resolved in advance could also set the stage for settlements in the case.